You articulate the problem but don't see it yourself. IS guys aren't supposed to know the particulars of an OS or piece of programming code. That's what CS guys are for. We have an intermediate knowledge of most available technology and can help design a system that meets a business need. IS majors aren't supposed to become programmers or engineers. IS isn't supposed to be for CS flunkies. I never enrolled in CS and don't want to be a programmer analyst. I want to know enough about technology to solve a business goal. And the flaw about the argument you and so many other CS guys make is, yeah you are very knowledgable on a subset of technologies. But IS guys get the BIG PICTURE. I have certifications and have done the helpdesk/desktop/pc repair business thing. I have an Associates in Solaris Unix. I have taken Java and am now in C++ class. I get the technical concepts. But I want to design an entire information system that connects all departments of the business together and facilitates knowledge sharing and I cannot do that with only a knowledge of Windows 2000 AD and Cisco routers or how to write a program in Java. Technical people like to beat their chests but in reality, they are one piece to the puzzle (as are IS guys and senior management) in designing a successful Information System.
Nice rant. Maybe you're the exception to the rule?
The problem is: who hires somebody solely to accomplish this nebulous task you describe as "designing a successful Information System?" We have executives and management people who do the high-level planning, and we aren't going to hire some gob right out of college to be an exec or a director or manager. Who would?
So you've got to start at the bottom of the IT deparment and cut your teeth. Guess what the bottom is: the help desk. The help desk where we don't want to have to hold people's hands when it comes to fundamentals. When I got an internship working on a help desk, my supervisor told the operator "Give Jzero any trouble tickets not related to our software." I needed no training outside of learning the software proprietary to that specific company. The company was running Windows, Solaris, Mac, HP-UX and I needed no specific instruction on any of these.
There really isn't a lot of technology to know, if you think about it!
Now I freely admit that I didn't learn what I know as a computer science major where all they care about is programming, but everybody seems to believe that MIS people are supposed to be "the guys" when it comes to all this stuff, but the MIS majors working alongside me didn't know anything. They didn't know much about networking, they didn't know much about databases, they didn't know much about programming, they didn't know much about hardware. They had no applicable knowledge.
We have technical people to respond to and implement the designing and planning ideas made by the execs and management. At my company, the execs have business goals which they communicate to the IT department and the IT director coordinates the subgroups of the IT department to answer the technical questions and provide the solution. I can't see a need for someone who has a halfassed technical background AND a halfassed business background.
Which is why I think the original poster would be very marketable with a management degree AND a CS degree. He'd basically have the business foundation a manager needs, and a technical foundation to back it up.
I've said it before, maybe the big issue is that the role of MIS majors is widely misunderstood, but most people, myself included, seem to believe that MIS majors are supposed to become System Administrators, and that is simply not what they seem to be learning.
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